Lloyds Banking Group has brought back the TSB brand as part of a requirement to sell off a chunk of its business as a remedy for receiving state aid when it was bailed out by UK taxpayers.

The group, which is expected to sell TSB next year, installed the head of media relations for Lloyds TSB and Bank of Scotland Charlotte Sjoberg as head of media for TSB in June.

Since then, she has built up an eight-strong team including staff from Fishburn Hedges, Sainsbury’s and Merrill Lynch, as well as Lloyds.

Sjoberg said that messaging would centre on the bank’s ‘Welcome back to local banking’ slogan, with an emphasis on what makes TSB different.

‘Our strategy is to be very open and transparent. We have an executive team [including CEO Paul Pester] willing and able to talk to the media, all of whom have a different story to tell. The established banks have issues which are well publicised and which can be a distraction, but for us there is one focus – looking after our customers.’

Five million people will have their accounts transferred as part of the move.

From the Lloyds Banking Group side, the effort to explain the split included chief executive Antonio Horta-Osario giving interviews over the week to Sky News’ Jeff Randall and the BBC’s Robert Peston.

This was followed up by interviews with The Sunday Telegraph, Mail on Sunday and The Sunday Times, while Alison Brittain, group director of retail, talked to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning.

Horta-Osorio told the BBC last week that it was a ‘completely clean bank’.

A spokeswoman for Lloyds Banking Group said that he used the word ‘clean’ to emphasise ‘that there were no legacy issues from a consumer perspective. There is nothing in the closet'.

The group is rebranding its Lloyds TSB chain as Lloyds on 23 September, with marketing head Catherine Kehoe giving a series of interviews.

The Lloyds’ spokeswoman said that among the areas of focus would be ‘our heritage and our quality of service. We have a long history and customers are familiar with us'.

TSB was set up two centuries ago as the Trustee Savings Bank before merging with Lloyds 18 years ago.